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My wife and I are considering a move to the EVERYTHING DATA plan and finally moving to better phones.

The device that my wife was interested in (via Sprint.com) -- the Motorola Photon -- is now $149.99 (with an additional $50 rebate). However, nearly every other website or store has this device for $49.99 with a 2 year upgrade.

However...

The line up for a rebate is NOT her line. She wants to use MY upgrade to purchase a phone and then activate it on her line. Her line will be out-of-contract in a couple of months, but she is extremely tired of her Treo Pro.

Question: If we purchase a phone using my line's upgrade, will we be able to:

A.) Move this device to her line without a problem or penalty?
B.) Have the $36 activation fee waived?

Are there any other possible disadvantages of buying a phone through a third party vendor like Amazon, BestBuy or Costco?

My wife and I are considering a move to the EVERYTHING DATA plan and finally moving to better phones.

The device that my wife was interested in (via Sprint.com) -- the Motorola Photon -- is now $149.99 (with an additional $50 rebate). However, nearly every other website or store has this device for $49.99 with a 2 year upgrade.

However...

The line up for a rebate is NOT her line. She wants to use MY upgrade to purchase a phone and then activate it on her line. Her line will be out-of-contract in a couple of months, but she is extremely tired of her Treo Pro.

Question: If we purchase a phone using my line's upgrade, will we be able to:

A.) Move this device to her line without a problem or penalty?
B.) Have the $36 activation fee waived?

Are there any other possible disadvantages of buying a phone through a third party vendor like Amazon, BestBuy or Costco?

Thanks!

A) Depends on where you get it, I've done it several times at BestBuy without an issue. Sometimes they'll require me to activate it in store, other times they just let me leave without doing so, and I can go outside, call Sprint put my old phone back on the line (as they do actually attach the ESN to the line you "activated" it on), and give them the ESN for the new phone for the line I want to put it on.

B) Not very likely, won't happen at all at Best Buy, no idea about amazon or costco, but keep in mind with them (at least amazon i believe), it may trigger some kind of penalty charge if you swap the phone to another line before a specific number of days..

All in all, I always prefer best buy (won't buy anything else there cuz I sorta hate the place), but as far as wireless devices go, they're aces.

You have to check around for activation fee waivers. Sprint.com and Amazon do it ocassionally and Sam's Club had a special not too long ago with free activations. Don't know about Costco. It's almost like you have to be in the right place at the right time anymore.

You could also try to call in. Some people have posted that if you get the right rep, you could get a credit in lieu of a waiver. I guess its how they input it in the system. Good luck.

Understand that your plan will change with the new phone purchase and even if you swap back to your old phone on your line, you will not be able to get your old plan back.

Best Buy usually waives activation fee and generally has lower out the door prices than anyone else with an actual storefront.

My dads line was eligible and we bought an Evo 3D on his line, then walked outside and called sprint to swap phones. No problems.

What do you mean that our "plan will change?"

I am planning on calling Sprint to change the plan FIRST (while keeping our existing phones). After that, I want to go to Best Buy (or elsewhere) and upgrade our phones.

We have a few minor "perks" (N&W at 6 PM, Pick 1) that I don't want to lose...even if we rarely use them. However, our plan will be the Everything Data 1500...and I don't think that it would change, right?

I guess that I am concerned that swapping devices between lines would result in some sort of secondary ETF or something. It would be great to buy the phone, take it home and then activate it on the line that wants it.

If your wife uses your upgrade for her line, she can switch it to her line right away IF the price she buys it for doesn't have the Sprint mail in rebate as part of the discount. If it does and you move it over before the 30 days mail in rebates can deny the rebate. I don;t know if this is a recent change for Sprint, but I was just educated in this tidbit a few weeks ago by my supervisor.

As far as waiving the upgrade fee, if you catch a promo or have the 3rd party actively waive the fee, you're in business. if you try to call in to get it waived, you're out of luck. Sprint reps have gotten NUMEROUS training session about how the upgrade fee is a valid charge and that we should never waive it. Ever. Corporate is really cracking down on that.

So it looks like you have to hunt around and see if retailers are having specials on activation waivers. Too bad Sprint.com doesn't support that any longer. That was the one reason that drove prople to the site for phone purchases now you go somewhere else to get the device cheaper and compenste for the activation fee.